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Biography:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton is best known to the American public for her role in the
fight for women's suffrage and less well known for her efforts on behalf of
abolition and temperance. Least well known is her role as an outspoken critic
of traditional Christianity and the place religion has played in the repression of
women in society.

Stanton was not along among the suffrage workers to argue that the repression
of women was not simply caused by government but, rather, by religion. She
argued that religion had to change dramatically for any headway to be made
in the cause of women's freedom:

When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions;
that bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all
emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the
injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of 'Thus sayeth the
Lord.'

Stanton was originally raised as a conservative Presbyterian but as she grew more
progressive in political matters, her perspective on religion began to change as well.
In 1895 she took a lead role in the publication of The Woman's Bible, a
biblical commentary written by a committee of female scholars committed to
equal rights for women. It not only criticized biblical passages which served to
degrade women, it also offered alternative translations which presented women
in a more positive light.

Also Known As: none

Alternate Spellings: none

Common Misspellings: none

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